In an unprecedented wave of fear, confusion and panic, nearly 13 million shares changed hands on the New York Stock Exchange today. Dazed brokers waded through a sea of paper clutching frightened investors' orders to"sell at any price".

At the peak of the panic selling this morning, the market ceased to function as such and turned into a mad clamour of salesmen looking for non-existent buyers. Stocks were being dumped overboard for whatever they could bring, and prices plummeted as much as ten points between sales. Radio Corp, for example, which had been trading at 114 earlier this year was worth only 45 this morning.

The crisis started early, when the sheer volume of selling caused prices to drop sharply. The ticker tape started to lag behind, and as prices fell faster and further, spot quotations began to show shocking collapses in value. Orders to sell came in from worried punters and boardrooms across the US. The bottom truly dropped out at around 11.30. At midday, New York's leading bankers held an emergency meeting at the office of J. P. Morgan & Co. This merest hint of intervention spread through the rumour-hungry Stock Exchange like wildfire, sending prices back up again. Police riot squads were called to try to disperse the hysterical crowds gathering in Wall Street awaiting the news. When the bankers emerged from their hour-long discussion, the mob surrounded them, eager to hear the bland assurances of Thomas W. Lamont, J.P. Morgan's senior partner: "There has been a little distress selling on the Stock Exchange," he said, adding that the situation was "technical rather than fundamental". The market was essentially sound, simply undergoing a period of readjustment after four years of a strong bull market. The afternoon saw prices recover strongly, largely thanks to the big bankers' reassuring statements and frenzied efforts to prop up the market. In some cases the late support was so strong that there was actually an improvement on the day. Most experts claim that there is nothing in the general conditions to warrant pessimism. The deluge of selling today is said merely to have pumped water from a number of highly saturated overvalued securities. But the fact is that today's crash affected good issues as much as bad ones. New York bankers were tonight blaming the panic on the technical inadequacy of the ticker-tape system in processing such massive volume trading. Whatever the reasons, the spree of easy money and over-confidennce is now over. The bear market has returned with a vengeance, crushing the dreams of an army of small investors some of whom lost everything: 11 speculators are said to have committed suicide.